1923: "What Easter signifies to the Christian world, what the Feast of Passover is to the Jews, so is the snake dance to the Red Man."

March 07, 2017

Three months after the Smoki threw their first-annual, yet famous Snake Dance - the real Hopi Indians were attracting tourists to the real-deal. Their annual Snake Dance that THEY made world famous.

This is what a REAL Hopi Snake Dance - with real Hopi Priests - looks like.

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1921, Aug 21 Arizona Republic

The Hopi's definitely opened their ceremony to the public for financial reasons. "And the folk who make the 100 or more miles' trip into desert require all kinds of services and help that gives the thrifty Hope extremely profitable employment."

1921 Sep 4 Pittsburgh Daily Post

I don't think this was much of a secret - the fact that the Hopi put on this yearly event to raise money for their people.

The following year, 1922, the Smoki kept this cultural appropriation going.

1922, May 21 Arizona Republic

1923, Prescott decided they needed to build on the Smoki fake-tribe gimmick with a museum.

1923, March 7 Arizona Daily Star

See the star? That's the Hopi reservation. It's not far from Prescott. What a shame.

1923, Aug 19 Arizona Republic

This is where the Hopi lived in 1923. The impoverished Hopi.

1923, Aug 19 Arizona Republic

In 1923, the white Prescott businessmen were really getting into playing Indian - and profiting from it.

1923, June 19 Pittsburgh Post Gazette

1923 - the story is growing. Now Prescott Smoki's say that they were initiated into the Hopi tribe in order to preserve the snake dance. Bullshit.

"In order that the sacred ritual of the Hopi snake dance may not pass, Indians have initiated a select number of whites into its mysteries. These neophytes, prominent business men of Prescott, Ariz, made up to resemble Hopi, call themselves the Smoki People. Only old-timers can detect the masquerade. This photo was taken at Prescott, the taboo against cameras having been reluctantly lifted."

1923, July 6 The Sheboygan Press

But what the Smoki are actually talking about it that if the Indian Commissioner bans the Hopi's from performing their ancient Snake Dance - no worries... the white guys got it. They'll hold their Smoki dance for them.

I'm not kidding.

Fortunately, by June of 1923 it was finally decided that "the weird snake dance of the Pueblo Indians, done to the beating of tomtoms, will continue," wrote the Arizona Daily Star, June 10, 1923.

"To these redskins the dance symbolizes a form of worship. And for a government to attempt to legislate religion is not only against the American constitution but is folly as well."
"What Easter signifies to the Christian world, what the Feast of Passover is to the Jews, so is the snake dance to the Red Man."

Commissioner Charles Burke wanted to ban certain Indian dances, saying that the dances and pow-wows "mean neglect of crops and livestock," and would hinder the Indians progress and advancement, which is why he wanted to ban them.

What did the "Red man" think if Burke's ruling?
"When you stop the white man from dancing to the intoxicating strains of jazz music, when you force them to quit the tango, the waltz -- then we may stop our dances. But even so there is no parallel between the two. The white man dances merely because it pleases him. Ours is a form of worship."

1923, June 10 Arizona Daily Star

So here the Smoki would know - for certain - that the Snake Dance is extremely important to the Hopi people, and consider it a highly religious ceremony.

In 1924, the Smoki continue their money-making, cultural appropriation ceremonial theft.